Lost the Battle, Won the War?
by Chrissy Calavicci
Summary: Wilbur comes back from his little league game and it looks like there was a battle of five year olds. Cornelius explains baseball, fighting and failure with a tv pizza oven combo. Meet The Robinsons


**A/N: Just another quick one-shot. Wilbur has a little league game and they wind up losing. But Wilbur won the fight! Uh Oh. Is there a lesson in all this? Father/Son fluff.**

**Won The Battle, Lost The War?**

Cornelius looked up from his current project when the garage door opened. Wilbur gave his father a guilty look, then sat down in a chair.

"Bad game?" Cornelius asked. By the look of his son's little league uniform, he figured World War Three had broken out on the playing field.

"I don't like baseball." Wilbur crossed his arms, "Can I quit?"

"No," Cornelius laughed, "You have to at least play the season out. Besides, you might change your mind later."

"I don't think so. Baseball stinks. Can I try basketball? Or football?"

"Maybe next season." He put down his tools, grabbed another chair and sat facing his five year old son. "Why don't you like baseball?"

"It's a dumb game." Wilbur frowned.

"Is that how you got the black eye?" Cornelius took note of several injuries, "What about the band aid on your head? Did you cut yourself? There's blood on your shirt, did you have a bloody nose?"

"Well," the guilty look returned, "I got hit by a ball on my head. Taylor Hall called me booger brains."

"Oh." That explained the cut, "So then what happened?"

"I bit him."

"You _bit _him?" Cornelius' eyes got wide, "You can't do that!"

"But I did! I bit him! And then, Chrissy Tigs grabbed my arm and told me to knock it off so I kicked her."

"You kicked a girl?"

"But daddy!" Wilbur complained, "She turned around and punched me in the eye! I got a black eye from a _girl_!"

"And the bloody nose?"

"Taylor jumped on me and we started fighting. Mommy was screaming at me and Uncle Art had to pull me off. Taylor looks worse. I really kicked his butt."

"Fighting isn't really…" Cornelius began to feel weak.

"I won daddy! Aren't you proud?"

"You won? The game?"

"No," Wilbur smiled as he shook his head, "The fight."

"Wilbur…"

"You're mad cuz we lost the game huh?" Wilbur pouted, "I'm sorry. I guess I failed didn't I?"

"You know what?" Cornelius laughed, "It's just a game. It's not that important."

"Really?"

"Really."

When Wilbur didn't look too convinced, Cornelius stood up again and walked over to his current project. "Are you ignoring me now?" Wilbur frowned.

"No," Cornelius picked up his tools and started tinkering with a few things, "But you might want to stand back." After Wilbur was at a safe distance, Cornelius turned on the machine.

"What's the point?" Wilbur rolled his eyes.

Cornelius walked over to his son, "The point is, you get to see the first test run on the combination television and pizza maker."

Wilbur watched as the television turned on to a familiar channel. "What about the pizza?"

"It's cooking." Cornelius smiled. However, no more than a few seconds later, the television started smoking and eventually, the whole television blew up.

"Um," Wilbur looked at all the smoke, "I think you failed."

Cornelius laughed, "Did I?" When Wilbur gave him a confused look, he continued, "Did I fail? Or did I learn something? Maybe televisions and pizza makers are just a bad combo, maybe the wiring was wrong. Should I start over or just try something a little different? Did I really fail in a TV/pizza maker combo? Or did I succeed in making one of the greatest explosions ever?"

"I don't get it." Wilbur wrinkled his nose.

"It's not so different from your game." He explained, "By losing, you should learn how to be a good sport."

"But winners get trophies."

"That's not the point." Cornelius sighed, "The point of doing something you love has nothing to do with trophies, but it has everything to do with making you happy. So you lost a game. Did you have fun?"

"I did until Taylor called me booger brains!"

"And then you got into a fight right?"

"Yeah." Wilbur looked at the ground, "And mommy got mad."

"So, you also learned that maybe you shouldn't be fighting over something as silly as name calling."

"So it's okay if I lose?" Wilbur raised an eyebrow, "Because Taylor thinks I'm stupid."

"Taylor is one of those kids who thinks winning is everything." Cornelius explained, "No matter what you do, you'll always end up with someone who thinks that way. You have to learn how to deal with them in a non-violent manner."

"I can't just blow up a toaster?"

"You can't just blow up a toaster." He laughed, "I'm just saying that you have to learn from your mistakes. All those people who say failure isn't an option are wrong. You need failure to learn. Why don't you think about it for a little bit and then tell me what you learned from the game today."

Wilbur scrunched his face as he thought, "I learned that Taylor's a jerk."

"What else?"

"I learned that even though I won the fight, it made mommy mad. I learned it was dumb to kick Chrissy because she can hit really hard. The other team really looked happy when they won. I also learned that Uncle Art is pretty strong and I shouldn't ever make him mad."

Cornelius grinned, "That's a start."

"I also learned that I hate baseball!"

"If you still hate it by the end of the season, you can quit."

"Promise?"

"Would I lie to you?"

Wilbur eyed his father, "you _did_ lie about why the sky was blue."

"I'm not lying. Finish out the season. If you still hate baseball, you can quit and try something new. But you also have to promise that you'll stop fighting with the other kids."

"I knew there was a catch." Wilbur rolled his eyes as the two left the garage.

**A/N: Awe, is this really going to keep Wilbur from brawling? Hahaha. Hope you liked it!**


End file.
